Mentally ill New Smyrna man gets 30 years for killing father

Friday

Jun 13, 2014 at 6:23 PMJun 13, 2014 at 6:24 PM

By Frank Fernandezfrank.fernandez@news-jrnl.com

A judge on Friday sentenced a mentally ill New Smyrna Beach man who killed his father to 30 years in prison after concluding his freedom would pose a threat to society and there was nowhere else for the man described as a “ticking time bomb.”Marcus White was found guilty by a jury in March of manslaughter in the killing of his adoptive father, Douglas White, in 2011, in the family’s camper west of New Smyrna Beach at 950 Alligator Ranch Road. Circuit Judge Leah Case sentenced Marcus White, 23, after noting arguments from prosecutor J. Ryan Will that there was no institution in the state that would accept the violent, mentally ill man other than a prison. White has autism, post traumatic stress disorder, mild mental retardation and fetal-alcohol syndrome among other problems, according to testimony.“There’s no place that this court can send Marcus to ensure his safety or everybody else’s safety,” Case said. “That is a travesty in and of itself. I know the state and the defense were both looking for some place, a secured facility for Marcus given that Marcus has this mental health disorder that affects his ability to control himself.”Marcus White was aggressive and had trouble controlling his impulses. Those impulses took a deadly turn on June 7, 2011, when he took his sleeping father’s .40-caliber Glock which he was not supposed to handle. Marcus White stood two feet away and shot Douglas White in the center of his back, Will said during the trial. The bullet bore a hole through one of Douglas White’s lungs, and his heart and shattered upon hitting his spine. Marcus White at first said he took the gun for protection because he thought an intruder was breaking into the trailer but his finger slipped and the gun fired, hitting his father. But two days later White told a psychiatric nurse on June 9: “I want to change my story. There was no one there. I killed my dad on purpose.”Marcus White, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and sitting next to his attorney, read a statement before sentencing. The loose leaf paper shook in his hands as he read in a thick, halting voice.“The reason that I should not get prison time is that the death of my father was an accident, not on purpose and I forget to take my medication,” Marcus White said.He said that what White’s brothers and sisters were saying about him during the sentencing hearing, that he had been impulsive and dangerous to other children as he grew up and would grow angry at simply being told he could not have a soda, was not true.“In fact, I’m a very nice person, nice sweet gentle person to everyone that I meet,” Marcus White said.White added that he had been in jail and that he missed his dog and his adoptive mother, Mary White. He added he also missed taking care of the animals on the farm.“Me and my dad got along with each other and also me and my dad did not get into fights at all,” Marcus said.But prosecutor Will said Marcus White could not be trusted to live outside an institution, could not take care of himself and could not temper his own rage and aggression. Marcus White knew that guns were deadly, Will said.“Marcus White told people that he shot his dad on purpose,” Will said.Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips said that Marcus White’s mental problems justified giving him a lighter sentence and that prison was not the proper setting Phillips said Marcus White said that the shooting was an accident.“I don’t think that a prison camp is a good place for him to be,” Phillips said. Marcus White was emotionally unstable and did not socially interact well with others, did not pick up on social cues and had a lack of empathy for others, said Dr. Richard Greer, a clinical or treating psychiatrist at Halifax Health Medical Center. If he became frustrated, he was more likely to act out aggressively or sexually aggressively.Greer said the drugs he prescribed were not controlling White’s impulsivity and aggression. Will asked Greer about whether it was accurate to describe White as a time bomb as Greer once did.“Yes, it’s just the degree to which the bomb goes off when he is frustrated,” Greer said. “There may be times when his frustration leads him to punching a hole in the wall and there may be times when his frustration leads him to something more drastic them that.”